Teachers working together to improve student achievement in reading and writing

Summarizing

December 11, 2007

I want kids to talk and write about what they read. But sometimes, when they give book talks or write book reviews, I feel like it’s déjà vu all over again. Instead of talking about their books, kids regurgitate them in episodes of endless summary. Even when I ask them to stop, they keep piling up details until their summaries are so thick it’s as though they’ve rewritten an entire novel.